Guard Turns to Pizza, iTunes for Recruiting

[Scooter24]

http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/340557/guard_turns_to_pizza_itunes_for_recruiting/index.html?source=r_science

Guard Turns to Pizza, iTunes for Recruiting
By Mitch Lipka, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Philadelphia Inquirer

Dec. 26--The Army National Guard thinks it has cooked up the right potion to cure its recruiting dilemma.

A load of pizza, a heaping helping of NASCAR, and a dash of free MP3 downloads and video games -- plus some cash incentives -- are luring the next wave of part-time soldiers. This formula, which is being used to reach those who the Guard thinks are most likely to join, is helping reverse a precipitous decline in the ranks.

...

Enter the pizza -- actually, the pizza box. On it is a picture of a young woman. The written message on the box says that if you join the Guard, the government will pay you and help cover tuition.

Since October, the boxes have shown up in mom-and-pop pizza places in 700 to 900 college towns nationwide, said Lt. Col. Mike Jones, the Guard's deputy division chief for recruiting and retention.

...

Another cost-effective campaign has been offering a free iTunes download for those who view certain Guard material on the Guard's Web site and fill out their personal information. At a cost of about 87 cents a download, he said, it's a lot cheaper than spending about $8 to give away a Guard hat.

...

Moskos, the professor, said the biggest challenge for the Guard is to make it enticing for men and women from more affluent families to join. In England, the military has a different cache, he said.

"Unless you get privileged youth to serve, you'll have recruitment difficulties," he said. "This is trying to convince working-class youth they otherwise have a worthless existence.

"I'd like see an ad with somebody listening to Mozart and reading Milton or Shakespeare," Moskos said.

[oostevo]

1. I don't understand the pizza boxes ...

Why are all the mom and pop pizza places offering these?

Is it a sense of patriotism, or are the pizza boxes sold at large discount (or perhaps given away) to the pizza places?

If it's the latter, it smacks of unfair competition -- the government can pretty much always out-price a private company if it wants to.

[Scooter24]

2. I had to edit that paragraph out for copyright reasons..

but it says:

The Guard spends about 25 cents a box for the ad. A pizzeria owner would get the boxes free.

How I see it is that the company making the boxes doesn't lose out in the deal. The recruiters contract with the pizza store on a design and then picks up their tab. So obviously the mom and pop places are seeing the savings in doing this.

[oostevo]

3. Heh ...

Reading the whole article before I said something might have been a good idea.

My point, though, it that the government is then out-pricing the other paper companies (Georgia Pacific, Arvco, Correll, etc. make pizza boxes). Some of these are pretty small companies. It seems like this program is giving their selected box maker an unfair advantage.

Who knows ... it's probably not that big of a deal.

[saigon68]

9. WOW--- JOIN UP AND DIE FOR HALLIBURTON

SO THIS WAR CRIMINAL CAN GET RICHER



STOOPID RUSTICS

[IndianaGreen]

4. Truth in advertising: there is no such thing as a part-time soldier

A load of pizza, a heaping helping of NASCAR, and a dash of free MP3 downloads and video games -- plus some cash incentives -- are luring the next wave of part-time soldiers.

The Discovery Times Military Channel just showed the multi-part documentary "Off to War" which followed the 18-month deployment to Iraq of the 29th Brigade of the Arkansas National Guard. They were trained for peace keeping, being combat engineers, but they were sent to a war zone. They suffered casualties, and their families suffered back home.

The Arkansas guardmen were offered $15,000 reenlistment bonuses that many of them had to take to help their families back home.

Truth in advertising: there is no such thing as a part-time soldier when you are in the National Guard!

[hadrons]

5. you have to be a real dope to join based on these "incentives"

[Xenotime]

7. This is the only way....

They can get people to join this illegal war.

[trogdor]

8. Well, if the Bush regime takes away all your alternatives...

...with cuts in student loan subsidies, Pell grants, job training programs, etc., I can see that the only remaining alternative is military service. That's the way the Bushies like it. That's what they were really talking about when they accused Clinton of "gutting" the military.

[FlemingsGhost]

13. Indeed. Still, those that sign up are doing the rest of us a big favor.

Think Darwin.

[mac56]

6. Sad to say, working class youth are already pretty suggestible

to this. I was one, I know.

[Hyernel]

10. Joining the Guard is exactly like joining the regular Army.

You get sent off to absorb IED shrapnal for Halliburton either way.

[KamaAina]

11. I've got your iTunes download right here, pal!

War, huh, yeah
What is it good for?
Absolutely (nothing), ah, ha, ha, ha

War, huh, yeah
What is it good for?
Absolutely (nothing)
Say it again, y'all

War, huh, look out!
What is it good for?
Absolutely (nothing)
Listen to me...

http://www.edwinstarr.info/

[darkism]

12. Pay for less-than-CD-quality music, potentially get killed.

Sounds like a double rip-off to me.